The Swan, Rowberrow | Doorstep Tours: Somerset

The sun has well and truly had his hat on of late and, as such, we've also found ourselves spending a lot more time outdoors. After hearing that Bee's Dad had taken the week off work, we decided to catch up with him and go for some yummy pub grub at one of our local pubs, The Swan. We've celebrated many an event as this pub and it's always one of the pubs we head to when the sun is shining and we want to get away from the seaside crowds. 

After much deliberation, Bee opted for one of the day's specials: Tuna steak, pineapple salsa and fries. Although, she's not actually able to eat fruit and veg at the moment so the salsa was swiftly transferred to her Dad's plate! Whilst she liked the dish, and demolished the fries, the steak was a little too rare for her liking. Not one for the faint hearted. She's definitely going to make a note of it for next time! 

Luke also went for one of the day's specials: Slow cooked pork belly with purple sprouting, mashed potato, sweet peppers and a honey & soy sauce. He got through it all with relative ease so that's always a good sign! 

Of course, no TFTC meal out is side-less. We decided to get the garlic focaccia because we are both garlic fiends. It was bloody delightful. We probably could have demolished a loaf's worth. Garlic is SO GOOD!

As you're in the middle of the countryside, it's never long before you hear the echo of hooves. This time we spotted four horses strolling along the lanes, looking rather content with life indeed. After polishing off the first course, Luke had his eye on the apple and cinnamon tart on the dessert board so he headed off to order it whilst Bee retrieved a cupcake from the boot of the car. We had been shopping earlier in the day...we don't just have an endless supply of cupcakes in the car. Totally wish we did, though! 

With full bellies, we headed to another little pub not too far away and had some more sophisticated conversation in the beer garden. Not before Dad discussed cider with the locals around the bar, of course. This little pub is pretty top secret, and it's only the locals that really venture to it, so we'll keep its whereabouts quiet for now. Here's a photograph of the outside though for all the sleuths out there ;) 

NOW THAT WE'VE SHARED a couple of our local haunts with you, tell us...

• What's your local haunt called and what's your favourite dish they serve? 

All in all, we had a pretty lovely day. Time to settle down with some more food and catch up with Game of Thrones, we think! We'll see you on Sunday. Have a good rest of the week!

with regards, THE FINER THINGS CLUB.

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The One Where We Took Woody To The Meadow | Adventures with Luke, Bee & Woody

bunny!

We've been promising to take you on more of our adventures this year so earlier on today we left the four walls of TFTC HQ and decided to take you with us. Whilst we didn't roam very far, we stumbled upon lots of fun via the following lane...



After passing the cows, sheep and rather empty-looking allotments, we found ourselves prancing around in one of the local meadows. Some of us pranced more than others... 



"OH HAI, LOOK AT ME PRANCE!" 



"PHEW! THAT'S ENOUGH OF THAT..."



"OKAY, MAYBE JUST ONE MORE BOUNCE!!" 


Whilst Woody ran around, and Luke searched for the ball that he decided to throw in the long grass (?!), I took myself off in search of things that were of great interest to me. I found cowslip in abundance, a dandelion seed head that I made a wish upon, a ditch full of sticks and a little creature's treehouse. Not bad. Not bad, at all. 



Meanwhile, Woody had set his sights on swimming a couple of laps in the muddy rhyne...one of his favourite past times! 

By this point, my feet were killing me so I abandoned my boots and padded home, through the village, in my raccoon socks. Fancy!


Home time, however, was put back a little bit because Woody decided to take himself off for one last swim in the rhyne...which was swiftly followed by shaking the water off all over me...



"OOPS!.......HEH!"

NOW THAT WE'VE SHARED our latest adventure with you, TELL US...

•  What have you been up to recently?

• If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would you go and why? 

LEAVE US YOUR ANSWERS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW or tweet us @tftcblog. Let us know if you'd like to see more adventure posts in the future! We'll see you on Sunday.

with regards, THE FINER THINGS CLUB.

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Bristol: Writing & Self Publishing Talk | Adventures with Luke & Bee

L: Now I like to think adventures can come in all shapes and sizes, and can be held in all manner of places. Our adventure to Bristol and back was certainly one that held a lot more than our usual food guzzling and sight seeing jaunts. That's not to say Bristol itself isn't awesome, of course! I'll let Bee elaborate on the various book shops we visited, as she is TFTC's veteran when it comes to all things neatly scribbled and bound. What I will say though is how glad I am and how lucky I feel to have had the opportunity to attend the writing and self-publishing event held by SilverWood Books but more on that a little later...

We thought we'd show you what happens when we leave the safe confines of TFTC HQ through the medium of iPhone snapshots! 


B: Our local train station also happens to be right next to a bakery that does breakfast baps, and we rarely go on a trip without picking one up. And of course, we also had to pick up dessert in the form of an iced bun for me, and an apple danish for him! Props to Luke for the visual 'mmmm' face a couple of photographs above! We managed to sit in a carriage with the world's most difficult passenger, who point blank refused to pay the fee because he was only travelling 'a few stops'. After a hilarious skit which involved him pretending to be on the phone to the supervisor of the ticket collector, who conveniently told him that he was being overcharged, we were held in the carriage at the other end whilst the police came along and had a word. Safe to say, it was a pretty colourful start to our trip!  


- This pigeon was pretty excited at the prospect of £2 books!

B: After arriving we headed into the centre and went straight to Foyles bookshop, which we forgot to take photographs of! Amateurs. Luckily for us, they were having a 75% off sale and I managed to bag myself three books whilst Luke picked up a copy of Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho. After a conversation with the bookseller about our picks, we headed over to Park Street for a quick browse before our tums started thinking about food again. Not content with only visiting one bookshop, we headed to the £2 book shop situated relatively near the top of the street. Yes, all of their books are £2 each and they're also brand new. It's a dangerous shop for people like me! If you're in the local area, you should definitely pop in because they've got such a wide range of books, from all the classics you could want to Wodehouse to Kerouac to Fitzgerald to Faulkner. They also have lots of other little sections, from military history to design. There's something for everyone! They are moving soon but they'll still be on Park Street so they'll be easy enough to find, I'm sure. I'll show you all of the books I picked up at some point but, for now, lets get down to the important bit...the food. 

B: Due to the amount of time spent in bookshops, we needed to head somewhere to eat that was very close to Foyles. We decided to go to GBK to get some burgers, fries and cold cokes. As ever, it hit the spot. Luke went for The Don whilst I opted for the Cheese & Bacon, sans salad and pickles as I can't eat them just yet! We are going back to Bristol relatively soon so and we are thinking about heading to either Start the Bus or Grillstock for food. If you've got any other suggestions, please feel free to leave them below!  

B: After a quick coffee, we headed to Foyles ready for the event! The Publishing Director of SilverWood Books, Helen Hart, began the talk and discussed important things to remember and focus on when it comes to writing and self publishing. It was hugely insightful and I frantically scribbled everything down in my notebook. Lets hope it still makes sense when I venture back to my notes! After an informative start, the talk was then handed over to local author Sandy Osbourne who was there to discuss her book Girl Cop. She talked us through the process of self publication and her experiences with her debut novel which was hugely inspiring and encouraging to little novices like Luke and I!

L: I really didn't know what to expect, but from the first minute to the last I don't think my brain has ever absorbed so much useful and insightful information! It turns out the world of novel writing and self-publishing is really quite scary and, somewhat expectantly, insanely difficult. The huge literary mountains I am yet to ascend aside, I came away from the talk feeling inspired and, for the first time, with a much better idea of what I need to do, with some directions to follow and with a destination I can look to reach towards. There is no hiding of the facts that lay before every new novelist. It's an extremely competitive and difficult industry to become successful in, but I'm not going to let that stop me and if you're an aspiring writer reading this then you shouldn't too.   

After the event finished, we trudged to the train station in the pouring rain feeling a little miserable but all the while really excited about what the future holds for us! 

NOW THAT WE'VE SHARED OUR adventure, TELL US...

• When did you last have an adventure? What did you get up to?  
• What's your favourite city? 

LEAVE US YOUR ANSWERS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW or tweet us using @tftcblog. If you enjoyed this post, feel free to subscribe through Bloglovin and check us out on Twitter. We'll see you on Wednesday!

with regards, THE FINER THINGS CLUB.

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